| Thanks to Ronald (Chris) Maiuri for permission to use this very extensive SEA project done in the Spring of 2013. |
SEA: Reading Assessment Data Table with introduction, chart and references.
Reading
diagnostic test are a critical tool in the arsenal of any teacher, but which
test is the right test? Reading tests
are not one size fits all and a teacher must use the appropriate test for the particular
student and targeted skill in question. These
tests vary in the skill(s) they are testing for, age and grade level of the
student, frequency with which they can be taken, the length of time they take
to administer, and their cost. In the
following paper I discuss six of the most popular and effective reading
diagnostic tests: the Slosson
Intelligence Test, the Slosson Oral Reading Test, Basic Reading Inventory,
Wepman’s Test of Auditory Discrimination, Test of Visual Perceptual Skills, and
the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing.
The
Slosson Intelligence Test (SIT) is primarily used to test the cognitive ability
of a student, mental patient or mentally handicapped person. The SIT is a
screening tool that is used in the first step of identifying individuals that
are on the low end of the intelligence scale as well as those who are
gifted. Since it is considered an
initial screening test only, it is not used as a determiner of final placement
decisions. It is comprised of 187
questions that look at six cognitive domains.
The domains are; vocabulary, general information, similarities and
differences, comprehension, quantitative memory, and auditory memory.
One
of the positives of the SIT test is that the manual is user friendly and fairly
straight forward. The size and makeup of
the norm sample is a very nice feature as well.
The norms were obtained from 1,854 children from all areas of the United
States. Another positive aspect of this
test is that it is very cost friendly.
While this test is certainly not the fastest of the diagnostic tests, it
is not overly time consuming. Finally,
the test can be given to students as young as four years old up to the age of
eighteen.
This
test does, however, have some limitations as well. The norms for this test are not disaggregated
in reference to those individuals who would be described as learning disabled
or gifted. Also, because the SIT is a
verbal test and minorities are underrepresented in the norms, it may be less
useful in our increasingly multicultural society. Perhaps the most limiting aspect of this test
is the recommendation that anyone administering the test has a graduate degree
in psychology or education and has taken a course in testing and measurement.
The
Slosson Oral Reading Test or SORT is a tool for assessing word recognition
level and decoding skills. The SORT uses
sets of 20 words and there are 200 words total. The student
reads words off of lists until he or she misses a word. The administrator will find the grade level
that matches the student’s performance.
The SORT is a norm-referenced assessment that provides estimates of
grade and age equivalents, standard scores, and national percentiles.
This
test has several advantages. It can be
administered to children and adolescents from first through twelfth grade. Words were selected from reading lists and
textbooks at selected grade levels so that they represent a steady progression
of difficulty from the first grade through the high school level. Another
advantage of the SORT is that it is aligned with the new Common Core Standards
and it will probably be valid for quite some time. Also, there is convincing evidence for the
reliability and validity of the SORT assessment tool and the test seems to have
adequate reliability. Administration of the test takes only about
three to five minutes depending on how well the subject performs.
The
SORT does not come without its faults, however.
Because the words were not chosen according to their phonic
characteristics, this test cannot be used to determine a person's knowledge of
grapheme/phoneme relationships. Also, it
is intended to be used for screening purposes and is not useful as a continual
progress monitoring tool to measure a student’s growth. Due to the word recognition nature of the
test, it does not address comprehension whatsoever. Perhaps the biggest pitfall of the test is
its lack of sensitivity to cultural differences. The test does not provide norms that are
disaggregated by individuals of differing cultures or needs.
The Basic Reading Inventory (BRI) assesses three key
components in reading fluency; accuracy, rate, and comprehension. This test is used to identify students who
are struggling in reading as well as to monitor progress of student performance
and growth. This test can be used to determine
appropriate intervention in classrooms which often focus on phonemic awareness,
phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It can successfully determine the level and
type of instruction that will be the most helpful for each student. This allows a teacher to provide
differentiated instruction aimed at particular students. The BRI points out a student’s strengths as
well as their needs.
This test is applicable to students from preschool
through high school. The BRI finds a
student’s independent, instructional, and frustration levels. The independent level is the level at which a
student reads fluently with excellent comprehension. The instructional level is
the level at which a student is challenged but not overwhelmed, typically
understanding roughly 95 percent of the words.
This level is where students will learn the most. The frustration level is the level at which a
student is unable to pronounce many of the words or is unable to successfully
comprehend the material.
Unlike other tests, the BRI is extremely effective in
assessing a student’s comprehension by following each passage with questions
about topic, facts, inference, evaluation, and vocabulary. The test is not as quick to administer as the
SIT, but does not take more than an hour or so, making it fairly time
friendly. The reliability and validity
studies are disappointing at best due to the small sample size of studies
performed which were all under 100 students each.
Wepman’s Test of Auditory Discrimination assesses
children’s ability to recognize differences between phonemes used in English
speech. This test can identify children who are struggling with the development
of auditory discrimination; this is crucial in the learning of phonics. Because younger children are included in the
norm sample, the ADT can be used for preschool and kindergarten screening as
well as elementary school assessment. Forty pairs of words are read out loud,
and the child indicates, verbally or by making hand gestures, whether the words
in each pair are the same or different.
The Wepman’s Test has many positive aspects associated
with it. First, it is very quick to
administer, the entire test can be given and scored in just 5 minutes. Also, the norms for this test were based on a
nice sized, diverse sample of 1,885 children ages 4-8 years, from 30 states. Unlike the SORT, the Wepman’s norms represent
different ethnic and SES backgrounds. It provides standard scores and
percentile norms at half-year intervals for children between the ages of 4 and
8 years.
There are some cautions about the Wepman’s test that must
be pointed out. While the norm sample is
sensitive to SES, the test itself may include a vocabulary bias against low SES
and cultural or linguistically different children. Another concern is that performance on this
test can be affected by hearing loss, poor listening skills, and attention
deficit disorder. Finally, and perhaps most compelling, is an overall lack of evidence
of a connection between test results and true reading level of the tested
students.
The
Test of Visual Perceptual Skills 3rd Edition (TVPS-3) is intended to
give a reliable and valid measure of a child’s perceptual abilities. Since visual perceptual abilities are used in
a number of academic pursuits, including learning to read, it is important to
know which processes the child may be having difficulty with. The TVPS-3 may also be used to track progress
over time and for research. TVPS-3 utilizes 112 black and white designs
organized in seven subtests. The TVPS-3
is in a multiple choice format where the child indicates their choice verbally
or by pointing.
There are many strengths of this test. The test can be administered to a very large
range of ages from 4 through 19. Also,
the student can respond in a number of ways including verbally, or by raising a
hand, etc. The norms for this test were
established with a fairly large sample of 2,000 students. The TVPS-3 has a high level of homogeneity,
it provides consistent measurement from one testing to the next, and it can be
consistently scored by different examiners.
The test can be administered to children with no diagnosed disabilities
as well as to children with speech, cognitive, neurological, motor, or other
impairments. The use of black and white
photos eliminates results that may otherwise be associated with color
blindness.
There are very few down sides to this particular test of visual
perception. One of the weaknesses of
this test is that the scoring can be quite difficult and confusing. Also, administration of the test can take
well over half an hour, making it frustrating and confusing for the
administrator and the student. Overall,
this test is inexpensive with many more positives than drawbacks.
The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing Version
2 (CTOPP-2) is a test that is designed to assess phonological awareness and
processing. Children experiencing difficulty in these areas may have more
difficulty reading than those who do not. The CTOPP can be used to identify
students who are significantly below their peers in phonological abilities, to
determine strengths and weaknesses in development of phonological skills, and to
measure a child’s progress in phonological processing as a consequence of
intervention programs. This test was developed to be administered to students age
7 through 24. The CTOPP-2 test takes
approximately 30 minutes to complete.
The CTOPP-2 has many
positive aspects. It is extremely
comprehensive in its results. It
provides percentiles, standard scores, and age grade equivalents. Percentiles
are easily understood by parents and others with whom the examiner might want
to share the results. The test was normed on 1,900 individuals ranging in age
from 6 through 24 years. The norms associated with this test are very representative
of the U.S. population. The cost of the test is $330.
The ability to read fluently and fully comprehend what is
being read is crucial to the development of a child. For many children the ability to read
successfully and skillfully comes naturally.
For other children, reading can be difficult, frustrating, and even
terrifying. For those children who do
struggle with reading there is hope.
Whether they have difficulty with phoneme awareness, vocabulary, visual
perception, or even comprehension, there are tests available to uncover these
difficulties. I have highlighted a few
of the most popular tests available today.
The SIT, SORT, BRI, Wepman’s, TVPS-3, and CTOPP-2 are all excellent
tests and very effective at diagnosing specific reading problems that children
have.
COMPARISON
OF READING DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS
TEST
|
PURPOSE
|
STRENGTHS
|
WEAKNESSES
|
APPROPRIATNESS
|
SLOSSON
INTELLIGENCE TEST (SIT)
|
-Used
to measure intellectual abilities.
-Predicts
reading achievement.
|
-Quick
and easy to administer.
-Can
be administered at an early age.
|
-Cannot
be used for children younger than 4 years old.
|
-Administered
at the beginning of the school year for placement & educational planning.
|
SLOSSON
ORAL READING TEST (SORT)
|
-Used
to determine level of oral word recognition and reading level.
-Used
to evaluate progress from year to year.
|
-Very
quick/easy to administer.
-Can
be used at a very young age.
|
-Does
not measure vocabulary or comprehension.
-Not
good for visual learners.
|
-Can
be used at every grade level.
-Used
at the beginning of the year to determine grade level and end to determine
progress.
|
BASIC
READING INVENTORY (BRI)
|
-Used
to determine reading grade level by word recognition, speed, and
comprehension.
|
-Can
be used at every grade level.
-Simple
to administer.
-Can
identify individual strengths and weaknesses.
|
-Fairly
lengthy process to administer.
-Lack
of focus to can skew results.
|
-Can
be used pre instruction to determine education plan and post instruction to
measure improvement.
|
WEPMAN’S
TEST OF AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION
|
-Used
to determine problems with phonological awareness and phonemes.
|
-Very
quick and easy to administer. 5
minutes to administer entire test.
-Can
be given to very young children.
-Very
inexpensive.
|
-Limited
because it cannot be used to identify specific learning disabilities.
|
-Can
be used at half year intervals for children 4-8 years old to determine
baseline and progress with phonemic discrimination.
|
TEST
OF VISUAL PERCEPTUAL SKILLS (TVPS-3)
|
-Used
to give a reliable measure of perceptual abilities.
-Can
also track progress over time.
|
-Large
age range of 4-19 yrs.
-Many
ways to respond (verbally, hand gestures, etc.)
|
-Scoring
is quite difficult and confusing.
-Takes
a long time to administer.
|
-Good
for testing with children with other disabilities.
-Is
capable of tracking progress.
|
COMPREHENSIVE
TEST OF PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING (CTOPP-2)
|
-Measure
of phonological coding.
|
-Used
to determine etiology of severe reading disorders.
|
-Test
is lengthy with many subtests and is expensive.
|
-Used
to differentiate learning disabilities from other causes of academic failure.
|
References
Johns, J. (2012). Basic reading inventory. (11th Ed.).
Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
McKechnie, J., & Bradley, E. (2001). Test review:
slosson intelligence test - revised (sit-r). Retrieved from http://aac.ncat.edu/newsnotes/y01win.html
Wagner, R., Torgesen, J., & Rashotte, C. (2013). Comprehensive
test of phonological processing. Retrieved
from http://www.mhs.com/product.aspx?gr=edu&prod=ctopp&id=overview
Pro Ed. (2013). CTOPP-2: Comprehensive test of
phonological processing – second edition. Retrieved from http://www.proedinc.com/customer/productView.aspx?id=5187
Slosson oral reading test. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.kentuckyliteracy.org/sites/ccldzen/files/literacy_tool/tools/Slosson
Oral Reading Test.pdf
Therapy BC. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.therapybc.ca/
Western Psychological Services. (1987). Wepman’s auditory
discrimination test, second edition. Retrieved
from http://www.ecasd.k12.wi.us/student_services/assessments/ADT.pdf
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